Caroline Lucas has announced she will be stepping down as co-leader of the Green Party for England and Wales this autumn, saying it is time for others in the party to step forward.

The Brighton MP is the party’s first and only MP and has shared the role of leader with Jonathan Bartley since 2016.

Green Party leaders are elected for two years and a new election is due to take place this summer, with nominations opening in June and a result announced in September.

Green party ‘insurgent force for good’

In an article for The Guardian, Lucas said: “The Green party must always be an insurgent force for good, consistently asking the big questions that matter.

“I have faith that our party, under a new leadership team, will step up to the challenge that our increasingly febrile times present, and give the people of this country the bold alternative that is so desperately needed.”

Lucas added that she would instead “be focusing even more on work in parliament” and in her Brighton constituency.

Bigger force

In the piece Lucas said: “The effects are already clear – our best local election results ever earlier this month brought the Green party to every corner of this country as we broke on to councils as diverse as Birmingham, Burnley and Richmond. The polls now show us ahead of Ukip, and closing in on the Liberal Democrats.”

The party’s share of the vote dropped by 2% at the 2017 general election, but it won an increase of eight council seats in the local elections this May.

She took Brighton Pavilion from Labour in the 2010 general election, after being elected as the Green Party’s first leader in 2008, gaining 92% of the vote.

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